Planners Approve School Projects

FARMINGTON — The Farmington Planning Commission on June 24 unanimously approved the large scale development plan for a major school construction project, though the approval was subject to several conditions being met with the drainage plans.

The Farmington School District is planning to build a new performing arts center and high school basketball arena on 45 acres off Arkansas Highway 170 next to Farmington United Methodist Church. The facilities, connected with a shared lobby area, will have a combined 74,800 square feet.

Chris Brackett, the city’s engineer with the McGoodwin, Williams and Yates firm in Fayetteville, released a letter to the commission the morning of June 24 stating he could not recommend the current design because the large-scale development plan did not properly address comments Brackett made during the technical plat review.

Brackett said he met with city officials and Geoffrey Bates with Bates and Associates engineering firm about his concerns prior to the commission meeting and Bates agreed to address the issues.

Brackett said it was the city’s decision to recommend going ahead with the large-scale development plan so as not to delay the school project.

“If I didn’t feel like it was something that wouldn’t work out, I would have said so in the meeting,” Brackett said the next day. “I’m not going to do anything that’s not in the best interests of the city.”

Farmington Mayor Ernie Penn said the city wanted the school district to be able to move forward with its plans so it would not have to come back the next month and delay the project another 30 days.

“Most of the issues were engineering issues between Geoff and Chris and they can get that done together,” Penn said June 26.

Brackett said the Farmington Drainage Criteria Manual requires that the detention-pond design for a large-scale development must be in a “final” design for review. He contended in his letter to the planning commission that the detention pond for the new school property was not in final design.

He said he had a “couple issues” with the drainage plan.

For one, Brackett said the engineer wants to release all the water from the detention pond at one point and that would cut a ditch through the adjacent field.

“I’m not going to let them do that,” Brackett said, adding he is requiring the school to provide a drainage easement on the adjoining property so there will be a concentrated flow from the detention pond.

The second issue, Brackett said, is that Bates did not compare the pre-development drainage areas with post-development drainage areas.

“There should not be any increase in post development flows from this property,” Brackett wrote in his memo to the planning commission. “The current drainage design indicates a 60 percent increase in the flow for the 2-Year Storm Event.”

Brackett said he believes all his concerns will be worked out with Bates.

“He understands what I’m asking for and he’s agreeing to do it,” Brackett said.

The conditions outlined in the motion approved by the commission include: A preconstruction conference will be required prior to any mass grading on the site. All state storm water permits must be in place prior to this meeting.

The detention design must be approved prior to any grading.

The school must provide a drainage easement on the adjoining property between the discharge of the detention pond and the defined drainage way.

Fire lanes and fire flow must be reviewed and approved by the fire department, before final approval of the plans.

Water and sewer improvements must be reviewed and approved by the appropriate organizations prior to any construction activities.

After the meeting, Bates said Brackett wanted some changes made in the design but his firm was not able to complete those changes before the June 24 commission meeting. Bates said he did not anticipate any problems meeting the conditions for the large-scale development plan.